Ftp – Problems with WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Server

cloudftprackspaceWordpress

I have a rackspace cloud server running Ubuntu 12. I've setup the web server, PHP and MySQL and it's all working with my custom PHPs and databases performing as expected

But, the problem arises when I install wordpress. The installation was smooth but I can't add any plugins or media from the dashboard

When I try to add the plugins, it asks me for my FTP details. I've setup the server entirely in SSH via terminal. I have not used any FTP related thing in it. So I'm clueless about it

Next, when I try to add media, it says it does not have enough permissions even though I've granted full permissions to the database user. Besides, I cannot change the wp-content folder to 777 from security point of view.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Best Answer

Change the owner of wp-content to be the same as whatever user Apache is running as - it might be "apache" or "nobody". You're having this issue because WordPress cannot update itself unless Apache has permission to change the contents of the wp-content directory.

Related Solutions

WordPress – Is it Secure to Grant Apache User Ownership of Directories & Files for WordPress

In my opinion, whether you can consider this safe (not secure), vastly depends on your use case, your users and your environment. Let me put it this way: If you are planing to provide web hosting for paying customers and not happen to be in a closed-down infrastructure or behind an unbelievable sophisticated WAF or IPS, you would probably consider this insecure. Here i am not referring only to the writeable directories, but to using mod_php, which you seem to do. Then again, if you are just setting up a small webhosting for your friends and family, expect some ten hits per week and really have no time, you will be probably be fine (however i would recommend using some available shared hoster, in this case).

More secure alternatives run each user's PHP execution under his own user rights. The most common examples would be:

suPHP, which is rather secure, but slow as snail mail.
Apache + MPM ITK, which is quite simple to setup but not so widely tested (in contrast to MPM Worker or MPM Prefork). Personally, I would not use this in a production environment.
A FastCGI + PHP Environment, either with mod_fastcgi or mod_fcgid.

Depending on your users/environment/..., i would recommend to lock down your box. In the FastCGI scenario you should use chroot and could harden your system further using Linux security enhancements (eg 1, 2, 3).

But once again: You can really spend a good deal of time on this. Consider using a shared-hosted environment from a good hoster, who will do this for you, before putting an insecure box out in the wild.

Nginx – WordPress – Capistrano Permissions Issues

Sounds like you may have forgotten to give group write permissions:

$ sudo chmod g+w /srv/www/mysite.com

Best Answer

Related Solutions

WordPress – Is it Secure to Grant Apache User Ownership of Directories & Files for WordPress

Nginx – WordPress – Capistrano Permissions Issues

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